YVAIN!

Yvain !  is a video game—a playable work of art—by Éric Giraudet de Boudemange, developed in collaboration with video game maker Tomavatars, following his residency at La Criée centre d’art contemporain.

This experimental first-person adventure game was inspired by a passage from the novel Yvain, the Knight of the Lionby Chrétien de Troyes, written in the 12th century. Yvain the broken-hearted knight flees civilization. He plunges into the forest, ditching his clothes, losing his speech and reason. In this contemporary interpretation, we guide the main character through an absurd and quirky medieval world at the pace of his lament, in a cross between courtly love and Game of Thrones.

The video game is the fruit of two friendships: La Criée centre d’art contemporain has been working with video game creator Tomavatars since 2015, and with artist Éric Giraudet de Boudemange since 2017. The artist began his research into the medieval savage during his residency at the ESPE (École Supérieure du Professorat et de l’Éducation) in Rennes in January 2018, for which he produced the video installation Yvain, mout fus or oublians. From December 2018 to February 2019, during a residency at La Binquenais college in Rennes, Éric Giraudet de Boudemange and Tomavatars will use Yvain! as the basis for a second video game they will create with students.

Éric Giraudet de Boudemange is developing a series of works revolving around the figure of the savage and his contemporary representations, scientific language-experiments on pop-culture primates (Tarzan). His previous projects were presented at the Fondation Ricard and Rinomina in Paris, and at Billytown in the Hague.

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Since 2014, La Criée centre d’art contemporain has been working with artists to experiment with the production of digital works, computer games and applications, either echoing an exhibition, or in the context of series, workshops or regional projects.

2014: Amalia Pica

2015: Joris Favennec, Battre la Campagne

2016: Mioshe, Humanopancton
2017: Clémence Estève, Remise en jeu

2018: Éric Giraudet de Boudemange, Yvain !

> correspondances.la-criee.org

click on: La fabrique

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Éric Giraudet de Boudemange, born in 1983 in Boulogne Billancourt, lives and works in Paris

Tomavatars (Thomas Rougeron), born in 1984 in Figeac, lives and works in Rennes

download the game for Mac or PC: la-criee.itch.io

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Production: La Criée centre d’art contemporain, Rennes

Partners: Ministry of Culture – Drac Bretagne, Réseau Canopé, Département Ille-et-Vilaine